Summer Patch at TROE

July 25, 2012

by Eric Watkins

A major summer disease outbreak at our research center has been a rare occurrence in recent years. This morning I took a few pictures of what appears to be a pretty substantial summer patch outbreak on a fine fescue mixture that was planted in fall 2011. The picture below shows a fine fescue blend (hard fescue, strong creeping red fescue, slender creeding red fesuce, Chewings fescue) on the left and a creeping bentgrass mixture (007 + Dominant X-treme) on the right. This area is being maintained at about 0.5 inch and rolled 1-2 x each week. Summer patch is known to be a problem on fine fescues (especially hard fescue) and is more severe under traffic stress. Summer patch can also be a problem on fine fescue lawns, especially when the lawn is heavily trafficked.